This is probably pretty sudden and outta left field like most of these things are but I have an announcement. And if you don't want to read the long version than here you go:
I am dropping this fan fic.
Now, for everyone who has the attention span longer than a garden salad, I would like to talk about how I came to this decision and why I chose to do this.
As you know, I frequently put lines along the likes of "I won't drop" or "I'm going to finish this thing" and it does seem pretty misleading to do this all of the sudden. But I also have to point out that it has been just about a year now since I started writing this thing, and if you recall from the Q&A the original goal of this wasn't to write a complete narrative but instead practice being able to develop and write ideas in a more timely manner than when I started. It was just a fun way to double up my creative outlet and work on an under developed skill of mine. It was also why the entire first arc was so mismanaged by me, as I didn't really expect to do anything with this. I just posted it up on the site on a whim.
However, as time when on and I did get better at writing a long narrativeyet I felt trapped inside the setting I had chosen. Sure, I could introduce as many AU elements as I would like but it was still grounded to the world of HxH. My awful uploading rate has stemmed mostly from burn out and disinterest in what I am doing, developing ideas and what not for the story has just felt stunted for a while. I sit in front of a computer trying my best to squeeze out a thousand words for hours for this project, whereas I whip out long form essays or creative works just fine. It is somewhat maddening that I have been trying to uphold a commitment I made a year ago on the spur of a moment. And with current events happening in my life, I really could use the extra few hours I spend writing working and saving up some money.
In retrospect, I wish I had constructed a setting completely on my own. I think I would probably do a fantasy or sci-fi story as well. I mean, I even have that one spoof chapter I made for a college assignment. I think then I may have much more involvement or passion for the project, being able to create the setting and characters on my own than having to constantly cross reference the wiki to see if I made another plot hole. (Seriously the plotline of yorknew auction is hellish even with the fandom wiki explaining everything).
Now, I would also like to add to all the people who have been reading now that I am sorry. Truly, you made a commitment and have been reading this thing for a while. I read every comment and every review even when they were pretty blatant hate comments. Some of you guys I recognize from the beginning where I see you pop up every once and a while. So it kind of sucks to pull the rug out from under you guys, so again, sorry about that. Though I would like to say as one last send off I will do a another Q&A chapter where you can ask anything about the story, where its going, past choices in the story, etc. In addition, I am compiling the loose notes I have lying around and ideas I have been holding onto for a while and will construct a narrative synopsis of where I was taking the story in the future. Things like fights or power ups and cool ideas I ahd for AU Hatsu's will be included.
I would also like to point out right here at the end the title of the chapter. "Breaking up with your hobby", it was an old youtube video I watched a year or two back that resurfaced in my recommended a while back. It's from a guy called Ternt on his channel Miscast, where he documents his process of dismantling and ending a really popular series he had on his channel that really got his channel going in the first place. Which really connected with me, as this was the project that really began my following here on the site and was also the first time I did something like this. Having an audience or reader base has been an odd experience, and to an extent I just didn't want to let anyone down. And like Trent put it, it felt like my own creation stopped being my own, all of my time and creativity was practically being sunk into this project. I just felt like I didn't want to start any other projects and the like. So similar to Trent, I am "dissembling" my workflow and transforming it to work on much smaller passion projects that I most likely won't upload. IDK, maybe I might upload some future works to a new place with a new audience to see how I like it.
So, I'll go on and change the description and title and what not. I don't really want to delete this either so I will leave it as is. And on the rare chance someone wants to do something with this, whether it's rewriting or taking it somewhere else then feel free, just put my name somewhere in the description. I will see you guys one last time tomorrow when I upload the story board.